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green cleaning

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    Ask Umbra on refillable cleaning supplies

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I’m trying to cut back on plastic waste and am wondering if you know of places that offer things like cleaning supplies in bulk, so that I can refill and reuse my old containers? Thanks!Lyda L.Harlem, NY A bottle walks into a bar and asks for a […]

    Ask Umbra® Technology

  • Ask Umbra on avoiding crude oil in vinegar

    Ask Umbra uncaps the nuances of vinegar here in this white vinegar primer. Don't mix crude oil with your vinegar!

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Take the Green Laundry Challenge — and you could win green laundry goodies

    Photo: alessandraelle via Flickr [UPDATE, 01 Jul 2010: Thanks to our many commenters for sharing your advice and experiences. We’ve randomly chosen a winner from your ranks: luinigh, you’ll soon be getting a green laundry kit in the mail!  Bummed out that you didn’t win the prize?  Maybe you’ll be luckier if you enter Seventh […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on spring cleaning

    Dearest readers, Ah, spring is on the calendar and in the air. Birds are singing, bees are buzzing, flowers are making me sneeze—or perhaps it’s this dust that’s been building up all winter. Time for the annual washing, scrubbing, wiping, sweeping, and general expunging of stuff known as spring cleaning. I scoured the archives for […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Ask Umbra on green cleaning

    Send your question to Umbra! Editor’s Note: It being the dog days of August and all, Umbra Fisk has trotted off for a well deserved vacation. In her absence, we’ve decided to dust off some oldies but goodies from the archives. And since we were dusting, we thought we’d start with this timeless green cleaning […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • A test of six recycled-paper napkins

    Apparently I have a confession to make: I was, until this time, unaware of the fascinating depth of the world of paper napkins. Word.osde8info via flickrTo begin with, there was my discovery that there are “lunch napkins” — the square, scratchy kind — and “dinner napkins,” the comparatively elegant, rectangular, softer kind. Seriously? I’d never […]

    Katharine Wroth Culture

  • Former PepsiCo exec to take helm at Seventh Generation

    Entrepreneur Jeffrey Hollender launched a mail-order catalog business 20 years ago and nursed it for more than a decade before it became profitable. That company is now Seventh Generation, and there’s no more catalog, but there certainly is a ton of recycled toilet paper — and all-natural cleaning supplies and non-toxic personal-care products. It’s a […]

    Sarah van Schagen Technology

  • Which natural toilet-bowl cleaner wins with a flush?

    Sure, you’ve greened your bathroom – fixing leaks and retrofitting for low-flow flushes – but what happens when you clean your bathroom? Are you undoing all your good deeds by flushing toxins down your toilet? Many conventional toilet bowl cleaners contain corrosive ingredients like hydrochloric acid and chlorine bleach that can irritate eyes, skin, and […]

    Sarah van Schagen Culture

  • Simplify your cleaning routine

    Tip #4: Simplify your cleaning routine by tossing out toxic stuff and sticking to the (very cheap) basics. Do you really need a different spray or scrub for every surface in your home? Marketing mavens want you to think so. But the dirty truth is that many mainstream cleaners are major contributors to indoor air […]

    Grist staff Culture